Bodhipaksa reviewed Wool by Hugh Howey (Silo, #1)
Satisfying
4 stars
Content warning Some spoilers
I loved the first two seasons of Silo and wanted to read at least one of the books.
I actually preferred the TV show, which was richer in many ways. Silo has more subplots and layers — for example, there is a Judicial branch, which is missing in the book, there's more to Juliette's relationship with George in the TV show, while in the book that has a tacked-on feel to it, and there's the obsession in the TV series with pre-rebellion artifacts. The book felt a bit impoverished in comparison.
I was taken out of the story by several things. The most glaring one is how Juliette can walk from one silo to another, doing heavy manual work on the way, with just the few liters of air she had in her suit. In reality she'd have been in respiratory distress after a couple of minutes. Then there's the impossibility of a silo of 10,000 people keeping their electronics alive for centuries. You just have to let it go, but it kept nagging at me.
In the end, though, I enjoyed the book. And now that I've discovered that the second book is a prequel I'm now interested in reading that as well.
